An Inspired Creative Offering After Returning Home From Work
Returning home from work yesterday, and after my shower, I
went to my CD collection to look for something to play. My search
ended when my gaze fell on Jimi Hendrix. Turning up the volume on
Hendrix's first album/cd, I settled into my sweet spot chair with a
cold beer in hand. Back in the late `60's, I was the first kid on
the block to purchase that groundbreaking piece of music. Even
though Hendrix hadn't hit the big time yet, I still felt somewhat
special (the music was special), but perhaps not special enough
because when my across town buddy offered to trade his Renaissance
album for my Hendrix album, I agreed, although somewhat reluctantly.
The Renaissance group was one of the first groups to
incorporate orchestra sound into their music production (ditto the
Moody Blues). As I look back, it was probably that sound that perked
my interest in classical music, which today holds a sectional place
in my CD collection. But I'm getting a little off track here, or, am
I?
Think train, a long three-engine train loaded with cars,
barreling down the tracks. Imagine yourself stuck on the tracks
hoping the train will stop before it's too late. What do you do? If
I were you, I'd pray. Now, substitute the runaway global consumer
economy for that oncoming locomotive. The outcome is still the same—
impending disaster.
In the liner notes for "Are You Experienced" the author says
the song "Third Stone From The Sun" is about space aliens coming to
take over the Earth, but, after the aliens arrive and see what they
are about to take over, they have second thoughts. Apparently, they
don't see anything here that's worth taking over so they blow the
Earth up instead. On "Electric Ladyland," Jimi's last album, the
Armageddon theme again appears in the song "Moon, Turn The Tides."
The author of those liner notes, after quoting Jimi's lyric "The
machine that we built would never save us, that's what they say,"
digresses:
"The second stone from our star has been busy getting ready for the
time to communicate with Earth to try and warn the people of Earth
of potential self-destruction which is completely against the will
and grace of living…we must prepare for the amazement in how the
truth shall be presented. Nature shows more than anything and it
does get pretty amazing. What's sometimes more amazing is how people
miss the warnings of tidal waves, volcano's, earthquakes, etc. I
know inside they pretend to miss the message…"
Fast forward to the present, 2006. How much harder is it
today to pretend to "miss the message?" There's no stopping this
train; there's no stopping global consumerism. Big Blue, our planet,
is stuck on the tracks. With its limited resources and "delicate
boundary conditions" it's only a matter of time before the train
wreck!
Perhaps you've heard of Chaos theory. When things (systems)
get out of whack, out of sink, they either break down or, quite
miraculously, change direction. The chaotic system moves from
instability to stability by creating a new system—a new order of
experience/phenomena comes into being, a whole new system sustaining
process/order comes into being. I have just described the emergence
of the `60's counter culture movement, an environmentally sound,
self-sustaining alternative to unbridled consumerism! But, as we all
know, the experiment failed, or rather, the status quo—"the
capitalist locomotive of "more is better'" outlasted the challenge
to its hegemony.
Yes, I've listened to the nay-Sayers, those people who proclaim the
60's and 70's counterculture movement not only failed, it wasted
precious time and resources in the process, or, more equivocally, it
was the derailment of all that was/is "good about America." Back
then, certainly, there was craziness, exploration, rebellion, risk
taking, and all of that In Excess, but hey, that is exactly what
Chaos theory calls for if the system, or remnants of the system,
is/are to survive. In the end, none of that happened, the old system
prevailed and it is now global. In the words of Jean-Paul Sartre,
all that is left now is "a wait for a wait for a wait until we die"—
only now everybody dies! The counter culture phenomena was ripe with
opportunity for change, opportunity for the survival of
civilization, survival of the planet, but now it's just "spilled
milk!" For what it's worth, I still believe. I still hope. I still
write—and pray. The train is coming. For those who can pray, do so.
For those who can't, don't lose hope. The end of part one of this
journal is still two months away, after that there are three more
parts. When it's all over, you still might not be able to pray, but
it's very possible that you will be able to identify with religion—
to say, "I'm religious!"
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